My convocation ceremony is coming up soon, and I’ve been busy planning with my friends. What we’ll wear, if we’re getting our makeup done, who’s taking our pictures, and of course, our hair.
Your hair can make or break your outfit; everyone knows that.
So imagine my surprise as a perpetual braids girlie when the group chat immediately starts buzzing, and all the messages are talking about wigs. More importantly, frontals.
The Wigs Vs Braids Debate Actually Exists In Real Life
Now, don’t get me wrong. I understand. It’s a big day, and you want to stun. You want to shine. You want everyone’s eyes on you. But a frontal? The lace always always shows. Even when the installation is done by the biggest stylists. It always always shows in real life. And I honestly just can’t stand it.
Or if you manage to bypass that, the hair starts flying in your face at the slightest breeze, or gets into your mouth and makeup? Like Malia, 24, from Abuja says, “ I tried giving wigs a chance one day for an outing, and I ended up with so much hair in my mouth that I coughed up strands the next day. Nobody had to tell me. I knew it wasn’t for me.”
I’d rather stick to my braids, please and thank you.
I explain this to my friends, but they don’t get it. They can’t understand why I would willingly choose to get braids done for one of the biggest events of my life. One even tells me that they’ll make me look like a child compared to them with the wigs. A wig would help me look classier.
And that’s when I realised that this isn’t just a preference thing. That the whole discourse about braids not being allowed into the club actually exists in real life and applies to a variety of situations. In our current society, you apparently cannot attend a big event in braids. It has to be a wig.
Who the hell came up with that?
Who Said Wigs = Classy?
Now, thinking it over more carefully, the main argument in favor of wigs for outings is that they make you look classier and more luxurious, and give “that girl” look. In Nigeria, having class equals being rich. According to Fikunmi, 27, “Good wigs are expensive, so wearing one means you’re expensive too. You can’t see someone with raw donor hair and someone with braids and think the girl on braids is classier.”
The logic makes sense. After all, someone who has that much money to drop on hair probably has ten times that same amount sitting in their bank account, right? And of course, when you’re out at a big event or location, the main purpose of your attendance is to show everyone in attendance how rich you are, not to have fun.
Everyone seems to agree on one thing: When you’re out in a good wig, you give bougie, you give expensive, you give… soft madam. But, when you’re out in braids, you give uni student, you give “low effort”, you give… not as hot as the other girls.
In The Clurb, Are We All Fam?
And that’s why in Lagos, wearing your braids to the club is practically a sin. The biggest nightlife spots apparently aren’t for girls with braids. All the baddies have agreed: even if you’re sporting the most expensive braids in the world, you still can’t pull up to the function without a wig, you might get bounced out or ostracized.
Chisa, 25, a content creator in Lagos was a victim of this.
“I pulled up to this super exclusive spot with my friend for a fun night and omo, I left after three hours. I had just made these very expensive bonestraight braids even though I normally wear wigs, and the way I was treated was so different. Everyone was so rude to me. Even the bouncer! My friend who had a wig the same price as my braids practically had to beg him to let me in. It was so obvious that they considered me poor. And even at that, can’t broke people club?”
Good question. I call BS. Who exactly came up with this narrative?
Because when you really think about it, the math doesn’t quite add up. Yes, you might buy a good wig for, say, 400k. And if you take care of it well, you can wear it for two or even three years. But within that same time frame, how many times are you braiding your hair? Twenty? Thirty? And every time you braid, you’re paying again. By the end of it, you’ve probably spent more than the same amount on braids.
23-year-old Ella, from Lagos, also agrees on this point. In 2025, she realized she had actually spent way more on braids than on wigs because of the price hike for braiding, as well as the cost of quality extensions.
“I get braids done when I have money, wigs are for when I’m broke. The amount I spend on braids in this Lagos is crazy. I mostly get premium hair extensions, then when you now add in the cost of workmanship, it’s a lot. I did a hairstyle wrapped for 2025, and the amount I spent on braids actually hurt my chest.”
So there you have it. You could get the most expensive braids done just like Chisa did and still be treated like your money isn’t worth anything, while someone with a Latisha Sensationnel wig (no hate on her; we love this unit over here) which is as beautiful as it is affordable, would be regarded as classier or better looking than you.
At the end of the day, the actual cost doesn’t even count.
The 4c Hair Bias
Ofcourse, we also have to remember the fact that we as Nigerians absolutely hate our natural type 4 hair. Sure, in the past decade, a lot of progress has been made, but at the most basic level, a lot of us simply find 4c hair annoying. Visit an average salon on your street with shrunken 4c hair, and watch them butcher it with heat and rough treatment. They’ll not only struggle with it, but also call it difficult, strong, and difficult to work with. When it’s the hair that naturally grows from our scalps! And before you’re done, the hairstylist would have asked at least 5 times, “Why don’t you relax your hair?” She will continue, “It doesn’t even have to relax completely, just let’s leave it on for a few minutes or maybe texturise your hair.”
But straight hair? That’s a whole other ball game. Come in with relaxed hair and watch them praise you for existing. “Oh, your hair is so soft”,”Oh, your hair is so easy to work with!”
That bias fuels this wig vs braids debate. Most Nigerians are so enamored of global beauty standards when it comes to hair: straight and wavy. Not thick and coily like ours. And wigs are the easiest way to achieve these standards, as opposed to braids, which show your scalp and easily revert to your natural hair texture after two weeks of wear.
It’s classism and your deep-seated love for global beauty standards that make you think wigs are the best choice for going out.
I’m not even saying wigs are bad. I really do understand the appeal. They’re convenient. They help protect your hair( though those frontals are frying your edges!). They save you from hours of painful braiding, and after a long day, you can just rip them off and fling them away. These are real and perfectly valid reasons why people choose them.
But I simply refuse to hear that excuse of wigs being more intentional when braids take more effort, pain, and time.
What I’m Deciding On
Personally, for my convocation, I will proudly wear my braids. And maybe, for my next event, I may have on a wig (not a frontal, though, I might never warm up to them). Whatever you choose to do with your hair is your choice to make. The problem is when other people in society start making these choices for you and enforcing standards.
So the next time you have an event to attend, think about what you actually want on your head. Not what others expect you to. Are you conforming to anyone’s standards? If so, is that really what you want to do?
Wear whatever hairstyle you want. You’re literally that girl.
